An empirical study was conducted to determine the ability of naive subjects to sample information from different display configurations. Simple line drawings circumscribed areas shaped like squares, rectangles, `Ts,' `Ls,' and `+,' among others. Each such `area' was presented for one second followed after a brief interstimulus interval (ISI) by a 12-letter (3 X 4) matrix. The subjects' task was to report all the letters that would have been surrounded by the area, if the line drawing of the area were superimposd on the letter matrix. The effects of display configuration on attentional sampling performance were thus assessed for an arbitrary set of 36 configurations. The results indicated that single, spatially contiguous areas could be monitored better than separate areas, and simple configurations were better than more complex ones. These results have implications for Heads-up Displays (HUDs) and for the optimal spatial configuration of salient gauges and instruments within a vehicle or airplane cockpit.